South Korean tech giant Samsung's next big thing, the Galaxy Note smartphone or phablet (phone+tablet) with a massive 5.3-inch Super AMOLED screen, is now available for pre-orders from AT&T's official Web site. Best Buy has also reportedly started accepting pre-orders for the Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) handset.

The Samsung Galaxy Note, which gained much attention at CES 2012 in Las Vegas last month, will start shipping from Feb. 19 in the U.S. and from Feb. 14 in Canada. Both Best Buy U.S. and AT&T are offering the device for $299.99 with a minimum two-year monthly voice ($39.99/month) and data plan ($20/month). However, it does not look like the subsidized device is available with a data-only plan, according to Android Police.

According to various reports, the device has got positive responses from customers till now. More than one million units of Galaxy Note have reportedly been sold in Korea, Hong Kong, France and some other parts of the world where it has already been launched.

Although the device runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread platform, Samsung said it will update the Galaxy Note's operating system to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich this quarter.

What makes the Samsung Galaxy Note stand out is the S Pen or the capacitive stylus pen that accompanies the device. The S Pen allows users to crop, copy, write or draw anything on the device's built-in apps and other applications that it supports.

So who would be the toughest rival to reckon with after Samsung's Big Daddy debuts in the U.S.? Undoubtedly, the Apple iPhone 4S.

Kicking off with a new debut weekend sales record (4 million in three days), the iPhone 4S turned out to be the major contributor for Apple's record-breaking sales during the third quarter of 2011. In the quarterly report, the biggest of all numbers that caught everyone's attention was the number of iPhones sold - it was 37.04 million, compared to the expected 30.2 million.

Let's have a look at how the iPhone 4S stacks up against the Samsung Galaxy Note:

Display - The Galaxy Note comes with Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen and the iPhone 4S comes with LED backlit IPS TFT with capacitive touchscreen. Both the devices feature 16M colors.

Although the displays of the two devices stand well in their respected places, iPhone 4S's Retina Display and scratch-resistant glass with oleophobic coating seem to have an upper hand. In case of the Galaxy Note, keeping a phone with such a big display is not that safe even with the hardy Gorilla Glass.

The iPhone 4S has 285 pixels-per-inch (ppi) pixel density with 640 x 960 resolution and 3.5 inches of screen. On the other hand, the Galaxy Note has a 5.3 inches screen and 800 x 1280 resolution, which, according to some experts, is not worth if you are providing just 285 ppi density.

Verdict: iPhone 4S wins.

Design - For those users who prefer a smaller and lighter smartphone, the iPhone 4S would surely be the first choice with a dimension of 115.2 x 58.6 x 9.3 mm with 140g of weight.

However, there are customers who prefer a large screen space. With Galaxy Note's slick and minimalist design that complements its larger display, the device looks like a sizeable piece of kit for them. Compared to the iPhone 4S, the Galaxy Note is 146.9 mm tall, 83 mm wide and only 9.7 mm thin. It weighs 178g.

Verdict: It's a tie.

Processor - FromApple's point of view, it was indeed a brave attempt by the company to clock in all the power of an iPad 2 into the iPhone 4S, its first dual core phone. The device features a 1GHz dual core ARM Cortex-A9 processor running the Apple A5 chipset and a SGX 543MP2 GPU.

However, that's not just enough to overthrow the Samsung device. The Galaxy Note is powered by its dual core ARM Cortex-A9 processor that is clocked at 1.4GHz and runs the Exynos chipset.

Verdict: Galaxy Note wins.

Storage - TheSamsungGalaxy Note is available in two storage variants - 16GB and 32GB. It also has support for a further 32GB via microSD and comes with a 2GB card as standard. The iPhone 4S, on the other hand, comes with three storage options - 16GB, 32GB or 64GB.

Verdict: It's a tie.

RAM - When it comes to RAM, the Galaxy Note easily overshadows the iPhone 4S. The Samsung device is typically more responsive and better for multitasking, sporting 1GB of RAM, while the iPhone 4S comes with only 512MB of RAM.

Verdict: Galaxy Note wins.

Operating System - The Galaxy Note runs on Google's Android 2.3 Gingerbread platform (upgradable to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich), which is not as feature packed as iOS 5 that powers the iPhone 4S.

The iOS 5 promises much more content and features including an integrated BlackBerry Messenger style iMessage service, a voice-powered virtual Assistant named Siri, improved Notifications System and Newsstand.

Verdict: iPhone 4S wins.

Camera - Both the smartphones carry a rear-facing 8 megapixel LED flash cameras at 3264x2448 pixels with 1080p video capture capability. For video calls, the iPhone 4S has a secondary VGA camera, while the Galaxy Note comes with a 2 megapixel front-facing camera.

Even if the iPhone 4S has superior Bluetooth support, featuring v4.0 with A2DP, compared to v3.0 with A2DP, EDR in the Galaxy Note, that makes very little difference since we can't connect the iPhone 4S to every device.

Verdict: Galaxy Note wins.

Battery - According to GSMARENA.com, the iPhone 4S comes with a Li-Po 1420 mAh battery with 8 hours of talk time on 3G networks, up to 14 hours of talk time on 2G networks and a standby time of 200 hours.

The Galaxy Note features a Li-Ion 2500 mAh battery with 13 h 30 min of talk time on 3G networks and up to 26 h 10 min of talk time on 2G networks, with stand-by time of 820 hours on 3G networks and up to 960 hours on 2G.